In a radio access network, a network may form a logical/virtual/hyper user equipment (UE) mesh entity, hereinafter Hyper UE, consisting of a group/cluster of UEs in close proximity, capable of sidelink device-to-device (D2D) short-range communications, to help boost coverage and spectral efficiency. UEs form a Hyper UE that acts as a single distributed virtual transceiver with respect to the network. The network communicates with the distributed virtual transceiver through a first access link air interface designed for uplink and/or downlink communications.
A Hyper UE consists of at least one target UE (TUE) and a set of cooperating UEs (CUEs). CUEs help TUEs communicate with the network, for example by receiving data on the downlink and/or transmitting data on the uplink using the access link air interface by acting as UE relays between the network and the TUEs.